Knockout quickly hurried down the hall, of the warship. The thought of Megatron shouting at him fresh in his mind. A large metal door, slid open allowing him to enter. Inside was the commutations office, Soundwave.
"Soundwave, have you found anything yet? Megatron is going to have my head if we don't find that seeker!" said Knockout as he rushed into the room.
Soundwave didn't answer as usual. The decepticon commutations officer just stood there, emotionless.
"I just can believe that he might kill me over Starscream! A month ago, that seeker wasn't even worth worrying over, and now finding him is suddenly one of the top priorities." Knockout continued.
Knockout's rant continued, but soundwave, payed no mind and focused on the screen in front of him. The scanner was the same as it had been ever since he found the files. An endless search of the planet with no, alerts. Suddenly, a small red dot appeared on the scanner, they found him. Soundwave smoothly turned around to knockout, waiting to be noticed.
"It's hard enough to catch a normal flyer, but this is starscream. He may be and idiot, but he's an idiot that knows how to disappear." Knockout when on, as soundwave just continued to watch.
"We, shouldn't be looking for him! what's is even on those files," knockout paused his rant when he saw Soundwave's faceless figure staring at him, "Why are looking at me like that?"
Soundwave smoothly turned back to the scanner and pointed at the red dot. Knockout suddenly took an interest in the scanner, and when over for a closer look.
"Well, looks like I'll be keeping my head after all. Find out his exact location, I'll fetch Dreadwing."
Up. Down. Left. Right. He flew, the wind rushing around his outstretched metal wings. The sky embraced him after weeks of being shielded from her loving blue gaze. He was enjoying himself so much, that he forgot that someone was watching him, until he heard a whistle and clapping. His gaze looked down at his little one-person audience. Nya was smiling, her eyes looked so much brighter in the sunlight. He turned back toward the ground and landed.
"Impressive!" Nya shouted before whistling again.
"You liked it?" said Starscream.
"Of course, I never thought I would get a privet airshow in my back yard."
Starscream chuckled at her joke, he looked down at the ground, wondering, and asked "Nya why did you help me?"
"Didn't I tell you already? You needed help; I couldn't just leave you in the dirt."
"Are you sure that it had nothing to do with the fact that I'm jet?"
Nya froze, "I-I don't know."
Starscream looked at her confused.
"When I saw your wings right away, I could tell that you could fly any one with lick of plane experience would know. I knew that without intervention you wouldn't survive much less be able to fly. I might have helped you because I didn't want another pilot's or whatever you were, wings' to get clipped."
"Clipped?"
"When humans don't want their pet birds to fly, they clip their wings. That's kind of how I felt like after the…uhm…accident. A bird that got their wings clipped, and I didn't want that to happen to anyone else."
Starscream stared at Nya. He had never felt sorry and thankful to anyone, much less to a human. "Well, I'm thankful that, you saw it that way. I couldn't imagine not being able to fly."
"Wait, did you just thank me?"
"Yes, why?"
"You just don't seem like the thankful type." She smiled, "Your welcome and thank you too."
"Why?"
"For letting me help you. It was nice to do something useful again."
Nya, grabbed the bucket at her feet, walked over to a large hole in the ground and began to fill it with red clay.
"So, now that your fixed I guess you'll be on your way?" she asked hesitantly.
"I don't know, I don't exactly have anywhere to go."
"Well, you can always stay around here or visit if you ever have to leave full time. I don't mind someone to talk to."
"It is nice to have a conversation where you don't have to worry about what you say. If I do have to leave, I won't destroy your… grass."
She Laughed. "It's usually called a lawn and don't worry about that you actually did me a favor. It could take weeks for me get to clay that is this deep below the ground and I'm not a fancy rich person so I don't really care about how my lawn looks." Nya finished filling the bucked and walked back inside of the barn.
Starscream followed her inside and found her back at the table in the corner, working on another clay jet. He could see, that she hated being a "bird that got their wings clipped" as she put it. Even though she wasn't a cybertronian, she was still a seeker and a taking a seeker's flite was practically a fate worse than death. He decided to do something he thought he would never do.
"Do you want a ride?" he asked.
"What?" Nay asked, confused.
"A ride."
She stared at him for moment, "Thank you for the offer but I can't…"
The loud booming sounds of low flying planes stopped Nya from finishing. She quickly stood up from her seat, and walked over to a small part of the dirt floor that was made of wooden boards. She pulled one of the boards up and grabbed a brown backpack from the hole in between the boards.
Starscream carefully looked out of the barn's door, suddenly he saw above him were two silver jets, being led by a golden and royal blue jet. He immediately knew what they were.
"Seekers." He whispered.
"What?" Nya asked, as she joined him at the entrance.
"Seekers, high ranking decepticon Air soldiers."
"I thought you cut ties with the decepticons?"
"I did."
"Then why are you looking for you?"
"What make you think there looking for me?"
"I'm a fired air force pilot, that makes clay figurines for a living and I live in the middle of nowhere. What would an alien military force want with me? My own species doesn't even want to deal with me."
"She right. They wouldn't come for her. Then why are they here? The only thing they would be able to track is…me." Starscream thought.
"Come on we can't stay here." Nya said.
"What why?"
"If they're using some kind of tracking tech that can see through objects then this barn is doing nothing but blocking our view of them and it's not very strong cover."
Starscream nodded and peered out of the barn's door, watching the sky. He waited for the seekers to swing past before they ran for it.
He lowered one of his hands to the ground, "Climb on," Nya looked at him confuse, "I can run faster than you."
Nya nodded and quickly climbed on to Starscream's hand. He gently slipped her out of his hand and on onto his shoulder. he peered out of barndoor and then quickly ducked back. The booming sound of multiple low flying jets grew louder and then started to dissipate.
"Go," Nya whispered and they dashed toward the nearby by tree cover.
The seeker squadron, soared through the clear blue sky.
"Commander, Dreadwing, this is where the signal is strongest." Commutated one of the sliver jets, to their leader.
Dreadwing was a golden and blue seeker, that was deeply loyal to the decepticon cause and Megatron's second in command. He was a strong fighter in the air and on the ground. He was someone to be feared.
"Hmm…" Dreadwing contemplated for a moment. Why would Starscream hide out here? Sure, Starscream was a strange con no doubt, but why would he choose to stay in an abandoned earthling structure? "take yourselves down."
The jets quickly followed Dreadwing's command, and the three of them headed toward the ground. With the metallic sound of T-cogs, and a loud THUMP, there were three metal titans standing in the clearing.
"Search the woods, and only shoot to stun. Like it or not we need him alive." Dreadwing ordered.
Nya and Starscream were crouching in the shadows of the nearby brush. They watched as the three decepticons began their search.
"Looks like we got three targets," Nya said as she slipped from his shoulder down to the ground, "How many do you thing you can take?"
Starscream looked at Nya, his face etched with a look of 'are you insane?', "You can't actually be thinking of taking them on?"
"What choice to do we have? Run? They would just tract you down again."
"And we can't fight either. The viehcons I might be able to take, but the seeker is another story."
"Really? That's not what heard."
"Heard about what?"
"You told me that you were a seeker commander back on your home planet. You should be able to take ten of those guys. I know that after what Megatron did to you, you think your useless, but you're not! You deafened your planet and then got a little lost. Everyone makes mistakes. You're a seeker. you're a warrior. You once ruled the skies and now you need to be that seeker again."
Starscream stared at Nya. Did she truly believe that? Did she truly believe in him? Click, went the small black handgun in the Nya's hand as she reloaded it. "Was that a weapon of sorts? She can't be serious." He thought.
"Ok, here's the plan. I'll cause a distraction and you're going to take off. Try to get at least one of them to follow you."
"And leave you're here to be terminated? You have even less of a chance against them then I do."
"Don't worry about me, I may look small but that's not the factor in a fight."
"Are you certain?"
"Trust me Starscream." She flashed him a smile. "I would fly west. There is a bunch of large caverns, and the trees are bit more spaced out. you can try and lose them in there. Good luck screamer," She slipped through the brush and disappeared.
She climbed up the branches of one of the pine trees. She laid on her stomach, on one of the larger branches, to secure a clear view. She pulled the small handgun from her belt and aimed for the beady red eye of one of the viehcons.
"I might not be able to take you down but I sure can make it difficult, for you to take me down." She whispered, and then pulled the trigger.
Dreadwing walked around the clearing. He may have been on this planet for some time, but he was still a little green when it came human settlements. Trying understand of what use a falling apart human structure and a giant pit served, was more difficult then he previously thought.
"GAHH!" shouted one pf the viehcons, as the shattering of his eye rang through the atmosphere.
"What on cybertron!" Dreadwing shouted. As he quickly made his way over to his troops, not notice the figure hiding in the brush only mere meters away.
Starscream, looked up at the golden and blue decepticon.
"Skyquake?" he whispered so quietly that even his audio receptors could barely sense it. He remembered the last time he had seen the decepticon Skyquake, and it was something he never wanted to experience it again.
Suddenly there was the sound of glass shattering and someone crying out in pain. The golden and blue decepticon turn around and went towards the sound, before he got close enough to find Starscream.
He breathed a sigh of relief, but suddenly he hears a ping of metal, and someone shouting, "IT'S A HUMAN!"
A mischievous grin came across her face, "bullseye," she whispered.
Nya was aiming her next shot, when she saw the golden and blue decepticon running over. "Ok Commander let's see how ticked off I can get you."
Dreadwing came over to find one of his soldiers holding his face in his hand with red glass all over the surrounding ground.
"What happened?" he asked.
The viehcons didn't get to answer as another shot was heard and hit Dreadwing in the face. It didn't do as much damage as the shot that hit the viehcon. Dreadwing shook his head for a few moments and looked towards the direction of the shot. His eyes widen with surprise as he spotted Nya. The viehcons that wasn't hit quickly followed suit, but he didn't let his surprise remain hidden.
"IT'S A HUMAN!"
"SCREAMER! GET OUT OF HERE!"
He heard Nya shout. He wanted to rush out of the brush and defend her but he knew that she asked him to trust her. As much as he was scared for her, he listened, transformed and took to the skies.
The golden and blue decepticon quickly followed suit leaving his troops on the ground. Red laser beam bullets shot through the air around Starscream. He narrowly dodged them, with quick twists and shear turns. He flew west frantically looking for the area that Nya had described and weaving in-between the shots.
His gaze fell on the a slightly more open area and quickly nosedived down. His wings sliced the air around him as he rapidly approached the ground. Then with on quick movement, he pulled in his nose up, leveled out and shot through the forest at miraculous speed. Left. Right. Glide. Turn.
The golden and blue decepticon followed him with expert precision. Although his movements were rougher, due to his size, he was still about to stay on Starscream's tail. Two laser cannons flipped up on the golden and blue decepticon's wings and began to rain down fire on to Starscream.
Starscream corkscrewed and spun, weaving in-between the oncoming terrain, and dodging the storm of lasers coming from behind. He was beginning to panic. Whoever this seeker was he was good. He couldn't do this, he was going crash, he was going to die, and he would never see Nya again. Nya.
"'You're a seeker. You're a warrior. You once rule the skies, and now you need to be that seeker again.'" He heard Nya's voice echo in his head.
Nya had gone through more than most humans, and her story would make any seeker of any rank have respect for her. Even after having her wings clipped and being rejected by her own people, she still managed to get by. If not for himself then for her. He had to be that seeker again.
Suddenly, the world around him seemed to slow, the trees and laser fire became easier to see and winded that rushed past him was now guiding him rather then blinding. Below him, he spied one of the caverns that Nya had told him about. With one quick and smooth maneuver, he rolled upside-down, dodging all the fire, and plummeted into the cavern. Wing first.
He leveled out close to the cavern floor, however the golden and blue decepticon was quick to copy. He dove down in the cavern. Starscream, dodged his laser fire, and swerved in all directions to make it harder for the golden and blue decepticon to hit him.
Up ahead were tall stone pillars, the gapes in the between them were just enough for a small seeker to slip through. He had an idea. Starscream, turned down his jets and let the golden and blue decepticon get close. Right before the pillars Starscream turn his jets on high, and zipped into the field of pillars expertly slipping through them. while the golden and blue decepticon was caught in the jet wash.
He stumbled around for a second regaining his wings. He chased after Starscream into the field of pillars, however he was too large for some of the turns and twisted that he needed to in order to stay catch his prey. He was constantly scraping against the pillars, scuffing up his paint and damaging his wings.
"SCRAP!" Starscream shouted when he ran out of pillars, and his purser hadn't been taking down by them. He had to think of something else. They continued through the caves and caverns, Starscream constantly trying to outsmart his opponent and maneuvering out of his line of shot.
The turned a sharp corner and suddenly, they were running out of cave. Up ahead was a rapidly approaching, water fall. Water fall? That means it was coming for somewhere. Starscream looked up and saw a large hole in the ceiling that was feeding the water fall.
"Oh, primus, please let this work," he thought.
Starscream fired his jets and bolted to the towards the water fall hoping that the golden and blue decepticon would follow him. The golden and blue decepticon, was naïve and fell right into his trap. Closer and closer they came to waterfall. Until the last second when Starscream abruptly pulled up, scraping his under belly on the waterfall.
Starscream busted through the hold and fly up in to the sky. He sighed in relief when he saw the blue and golden decepticon wasn't able to follow him, btu that relief was short lived when he remembered Nya. He quickly flew off into the direction that she was hoping that she was alright.
Dreadwing was in hot pursuit after Starscream, however it was proving more difficult then he thought. Starscream was a much better flier then he previously assumed and he was pretty clever to fly through terrain that would be difficult for a larger jet like he was. He was easily getting annoyed with his little tricks and scraping against rocks were not helping his attitude.
When Starscream quickly turned a sharp corner, and headed strait towards a wall of falling water. Starscream increased his speed, and fly strait towards the water.
"Maybe you're not as clever as you think Starscream." He thought, as he sped up to catch Starscream.
However, at the last second Starscream pulled up and fly against the falling water. Dreadwing wasn't able to follow suit, he was going much to fast and on of wings had been damaged when he hit one of the rocks. He transformed in order to slow down and he fell down into lake at the bottom of the cavern. He stood up out of the water and reacted for the scanner trying to find his target. However, the screen was glitching out.
"It must have been damaged in the fall," He said
"SIR!" called one of the viehcons on his com link.
"What? what is going on?"
"Sir, viehcon 23-b is offline."
"What how?"
"The human female, she caused it, and that's not all sir."
"What?"
"I've captured the human."